2.01.2008

A Conspiracy to End a Conspiracy

A recent LiveScience article purportedly debunks the "myth" that drug companies suppress successful trial data on alternative medicines in order to keep you, the consumer, chained to Big Pharma for the rest of your miserable lives. By referencing two medical studies that indicated simple at-home remedies fared as well or better than medicine, whose results are published in respectable peer reviewed journals, the article suggests that the Big Pharma conspiracy is no longer justified.

These studies (only two of many) are just the sort of research that Kevin Trudeau, best-selling author of books such as "Natural Cures They Don't Want You to Know About," claims doesn't exist.

And

According to Trudeau and other promoters of "alternative medicine," big drug companies prevent medical research that doesn't promote profitable drugs.

Yet here are recent studies by reputable doctors, published in respected medical journals and widely publicized on major media outlets that conclude that the tested drugs don't work! Surely this is a disastrous failure of the pharmaceutical companies' plan to thwart studies proving their products worthless.

Can anyone tell me how this debunks the Big Pharma conspiracy? Because, personally, I don't see it. Only two studies are published in reputable journals claiming what we already know: that sometimes grandma is right and the doctors are wrong. But these two reports are just a drop in the ocean. There are thousands of other medical trials that tell us pharmaceuticals are way more effective than home remedies. We're inundated with literally reams of data which overwhelmingly trumps the alternative medicine market. Does LiveScience expect Trudeau to rush out and revise millions of his books to make them "factually accurate" based on just TWO measly studies?

Dream on.

The fact is that Big Pharma, the FDA, lawyers, doctors, and the medical insurance companies are conspiring to keep us hooked on injections, pills, ointments, capsules, serums, and antibiotics for our supposed benefit. Nothing has quashed the conspiracy. If the "intellegentsia" came out today with undisputed scientific evidence that steel does not melt at the burning temperature of jet fuel (1517 degrees Fahrenheit), the 9/11 conspiracy theory wouldn't be affected one iota. The same holds true here. As long as the profits from the pharmaceutical market outweighs Trudeau's own, there will be a Big Pharma conspiracy.